The city`s foundation dates back approximately 2,250 years to the original settlement of Ledra, which later became Lefkoşa in the Lusignan period. The present-day capital of the island, it is divided into Turkish and Greek sectors by a boundary known as the `green line` which runs in an east-west direction.
Huge, thick ramparts, built by the Venetians in 1970, encircle the city. The walls are three and a half miles long and have eleven towers and three gates.
Within these walls are numerous remains from the Middle Ages and later periods. Outside there is no trace of the medieval settlement that once existed as materials from those buildings were used, at various points in time, to restore and maintain the walls. In the old city of Nicosia beautiful examples of Gothic and Ottoman architecture abound - the Selimiye Mosque, the Bedestan, the Arab Ahmet Mosque, and the Buyuk Khan, to name but a few.
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North Cyprus
